Seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs Merge with BJP

Seven Aam Aadmi Party members in the Rajya Sabha, including prominent leader Raghav Chadha, announced on Friday that they are leaving the party and merging with the Bharatiya Janata Party as a group, invoking constitutional provisions to avoid anti-defection rules. The move, disclosed during a press conference in New Delhi, involves two-thirds of the AAP's 10 MPs in the upper house and represents a significant internal fracture for the opposition party.

Chadha, flanked by fellow MPs Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal, stated that the faction had submitted signed letters and documents to the Rajya Sabha chairman earlier that day. He named the departing members as himself, Pathak, Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahney, and Swati Maliwal. "We have decided that we, the two-thirds members belonging to the AAP in Rajya Sabha, exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge ourselves with the BJP," Chadha said.

The MPs cited disillusionment with the AAP's direction as the primary reason for their departure. Chadha, who invested 15 years in the party, described it as having strayed from its founding principles of anti-corruption and public service. "The AAP,...